Saturday, June 04, 2016

FEMA: Cascadia Rising 2016

#11,428

While Hollywood has made the San Andreas fault in Southern California far more famous, the Cascadia fault
that runs along the Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and B.C.
coast is believed capable of generating a much larger earthquake.

And 316 years ago, it did just that, unleashing a massive (Est. M9.0) quake off the Pacific Northwest coast, sending tsunamis
crashing into the North American shore – and some hours later –
into Japan.

Luckily, all this happened before European settlers had arrived in
the region, and so very few people were around to witness it. Today, millions of people live in there, and the geologic record suggests giant quakes like that one happen every 200 to 500 years in that region.

A
9.0 magnitude earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) and
the resulting tsunami is the most complex disaster scenario that
emergency management and public safety officials in the Pacific
Northwest could face. Cascadia Rising is an exercise to address that
disaster.

June 7-10, 2016 Emergency Operations
and Coordination Centers (EOC/ECCs) at all levels of government and the
private sector will activate to conduct a simulated field response
operation within their jurisdictions and with neighboring communities,
state EOCs, FEMA, and major military commands.Conducting
successful life-saving and life-sustaining response operations in the
aftermath of a Cascadia Subduction Zone disaster will hinge on the
effective coordination and integration of governments
at all levels – cities, counties, state agencies, federal officials, the
military, tribal nations – as well as non-government organizations and
the private sector. One of the primary goals of Cascadia Rising is to
train and test this whole community approach to complex disaster
operations together as a joint team.

Recent subduction zone
earthquakes around the world underscore the catastrophic impacts we will
face when the next CSZ earthquake and tsunami occurs in our region:

Indonesia (2004): M9.1 --- 228,000 fatalities

Chile (2010): M8.8 --- 500 fatalities

Japan (2011): M9.0 --- 18,000 fatalities

According to press reports, this drill will involve 20,000 people
from both the United States and Canada, including various federal agencies, the U.S. military, state and local emergency
response managers across the Pacific Northwest, Native American tribes
and emergency management officials in British Columbia.

While the Pacific Northwest may have the potential for the largest quake in the continental United States, the seismic risks across much of the lower 48 are nothing to sneeze at.

Which is why everyone should have a disaster plan, not just those who live in an earthquake zone.

As a bare minimum, everyone should have a well thought out disaster and family communications plan, along with a good first aid kit, a `bug-out bag’, and sufficient emergency supplies to last at least 72 hours.

In When 72 Hours Isn’t Enough, I highlighted a colorful, easy-to-follow, 100 page `survival guide’
released by Los Angeles County, that covers everything from earthquake
and tsunami preparedness, to getting ready for a pandemic.